I have known the person that I have been friends with longest for 25 years.

We met age 11 when we started at high school. We were in the same class. I didn’t know anyone at my new school and I suppose C was the first friend I made. I had lots of other friends at school, and because of the wonders of Facebook I know what most of them are up to these days. However, I still actually see C (in the flesh) most weeks. We have hobbies and interests in common and along with other mutual friends, we remain close. There are others in the group of friends that I have known for over 20 years and I think that it is really nice that we have stayed friends for so long.

Another friend of mine, G, was a friend I met at university. This means that I have known her for 15 years. We tend to not see or hear from each other for 6 weeks and then we meet up 3 times in a week. We have spent Christmases, birthdays and many other special occasions together and it is great to have such a kind and generous friend who has always been there when I’ve needed her.

Ham and potato pie

I bought a cooked ham joint from the coop for 90p. They have a “hot roast chicken shelf” and one of the other things they sell on it is cooked gammon hocks. They are really tasty and the meat just fall off the bone. I can’t resist them when they are reduced to a quarter of the original price.

Bargain!

We ate a bit with some pasta and what was left was made into this pie.

The recipe is one of my “use up what is in the fridge” recipes, hence I think it would work nicely with left over roast chicken, or maybe use leek in the filling, or perhaps a parsnip in place of one of the carrots. Just make it up as you go along; that’s what I usually do!

Ham and potato pie (serves 4)

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

160g selfraising flour

60g trex, lard or other hard fat

pinch salt

OR, 250g ready made shortcrust or puff pastry

For the filling:

1 – 2 tablespoons of oil

1 onion, diced

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

1 tbls plain flour

300ml stock (I used a vegetable stock cube, chicken would work either)

150ml milk

Leftover ham, cut or shredded into bite size pieces.

Method:

1. Make the pastry (if you are making your own) according to the method you can find here and leave it to rest in the fridge until you need it.
2. Heat the oil in a wok style pan or other large pan and soften the onion. After a few minutes add the other vegetables and cook for 5-10 minutes.
   

   Soften the vegetables in oil

3. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute or two then add the stock stirring all the time.
4. When the stock is boiling, reduce the heat to low and cook until the potatoes are just tender. Keep stirring now and then as the thickened sauce may start to stick to the bottom of the pan.
5. Add the milk and stir and the ham to warm through. Turn off the heat whilst you prepare the pastry.
   

   Leftover ham

6. Roll out the pastry to just larger than the large pie dish you are using. Place the pie dish upside down on the pastry and cut out a circle of pastry to fit the top of the dish.
7. With the leftover pastry, cut strips out to the fit around the top of the dish. Wet the edges of the dish and stick these pieces onto the dish. The circle of pastry will be stuck to these strips.
   

   Pastry strips around the edges of the pie dish

8. Pour the filling into the dish. Wet the strips of pastry that you have put onto the dish already and using the rolling pin, roll the pastry over the pin and stick onto the top of the pie. Crimp to seal. Make a hole in the top of the pastry to let the steam out.
   

   Filling in the pie

   

   Crimp the edges, probably more neatly than this!

9. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 20-30 minutes until the pie is golden brown.
   

   Golden brown pie just from the oven

   

   Leftovers

I’m going to veer off topic for today’s blog. I don’t walk to work…I drive 15 miles with a stop at the nursery to drop off my child.

Currently, I am on maternity leave, so instead of this post I’m going to post a recipe…it’s what I love best!

This recipe is for ham and potato pie and you can find how to make it here…

Pampering? Not sure I know that that is!

My idea of relaxation is when my baby boy stays asleep in the car when I have dropped my big girl off at pre-school on a lunchtime. I can have a cuppa and my lunch in peace. I can read a blog or two, tweet, read a bit of a book…all whilst I’m ducking in and out of the house every 2 minutes to see if the baby is still asleep on the drive!

I’m sure there was a time when I used to kick back and relax, but I can’t really remember.

In all seriousness I’m not really one for pampering. I rarely sit still. I’ll be faffing around in the kitchen, trying and failing to tidy up, putting the washing on or pegging out, ironing, feeding the kids, baking, crafting…you get the picture. If I am watching telly I’m usually crocheting or blogging at the same time.

When I run out of things to do I go to bed, I’m always late to get there.

I’m never bored. There’s too much to do!

I can’t really think of a single most important lesson that I have ever had. I suppose my whole childhood was a lesson.

I had a great childhood with great parents who taught me great values. They supported me, pushed me and looked after me. They have always been there when I needed them and supported me in all my decisions, good or bad.

I have been shown how to be a great parent and I guess that that is the best lesson that I’ve ever learnt. I hope that I can follow their instruction.

I hope that I can have the patience with my children that my mother had with me - I’m not sure that I’ll ever have such a long fuse with my strong-willed first born.

I wonder if I’ll be better at passing on my father’s desire to win – I’ve done better at that as my daughter is desperate to come first is distraught if she doesn’t win competitions and games.

Sadly, my dad passed away 5 years ago but thank goodness my mother continues to be a great role model and support as a Grandma. I’m fairly sure that I couldn’t manage without her!

What can I say? Food consumes my whole life!

If I’m not eating food, I’m making food, thinking about food, talking about food or writing about food!

My cakes – Lemon Meringue Cake

I love to bake and to cook. I love how a pile of ingredients can come together to be a cake, a casserole or a pie.

One of last week’s sourdough loaves

I love how food brings people together. People can talk over food, can talk about food, can eat the food and say yum!

My cakes – Angel Food with Chocolate Ganache

I like the reaction that my baking and cooking gets. I want my food to be delicious and I want others to enjoy it too.

I want others to be able to cook and eat delicious and healthy food (and not so healthy treats). And I want others to know that it doesn’t have to cost the earth.

Reduced shelf bargain

I hope that my food is delicious and frugal. I use ingredients that may be cheaper or leftovers, but I make them into great meals that my family love to eat.

Dishes to use up leftover roast pork

There are many recipes already on my blog and many still in my head that I hope that I can share with you soon.

I hope that I inspire others to make good value and tasty food and they have or gain the love of food that I have!

Bank holiday dragon boat racing at Roundhay Park in Leeds

And on Sunday we ended up at the coast so it was a bit of a “grab what you can from the fridge” tea and the roast was put on hold!

Trip to the beach

Evie had a lovely time making sandcastles despite it being cold

It was all fun though so that is fine!

Here are some of our foodie expoits:

Whole chicken done in the slow cooker was a success

Big sister giving little brother his tea

One of last week’s sourdough loaves

Our meals for this week are:

Monday – meatballs (from the reduced shelf) with spaghetti

Reduced shelf bargain

Tuesday – freezer dive

Wednesday – fish cakes (not eaten last week!)

Thursday – beef burgers

Friday – fajitas; Evie is at a party for her tea

Saturday – maybe I’ll make a curry…unsure

Sunday – Evie is at another party at tea time so I’m not doing a roast (for the second time in 2 weeks shock horror) so we might have pork chops or something like that instead.

I’m linking up with Mrs M as always. You can see her blog and the other meal planners blogs by clicking on the button below.

This post is supposed to be about being “green, eco-friendly or ethical”.

I guess that I try to be a bit green. I recycle as much of my rubbish as I can. I always wash up cans and bottles to put in the green bin. All glass gets washed up to be recycled and I keep old jam jars to reuse and fill with jam that I make.

I could make the most of more of our rubbish if we had a composter, but I’m not much of a gardener and I don’t know what we’d do with the compost!

We have had lots of second hand baby stuff which has been passed on now, which is surely better than using all new.

I pass old clothes onto charity shops and am not adverse to buying from them too.

We borrow books from the library instead of buying new a lot of the time and I buy second hand books too.

I’m no eco-warrier, but I hope that the little things that I do might make a little difference.

When it comes to collections, I can’t say that I have any…but I have got quite a lot of stuff, a lot of which I don’t really have room for.

I, unsurprisingly, have a lot of baking paraphenalia. I have plenty of normal cake tins and some special shaped ones like a giant cupcake, giant oreo and a star shape. I’ve a Christmas tree silicon muffin mould and a Halloween one. I have also been given an Easter one recently.

I have 2 boxes full of biscuit cutters. I have boxes full of birthday candles, sprinkles, bun cases and other decorations.

I have a cake stand, 2 tiered cake stands and also a cupcake stand.

I have cupboards full of baking ingredients too. I have many types of flour, sugar, oats, dried fruit…you get the idea.

I also have mounted up lots of crafting stuff. This is in boxes under the spare bed. There are about 3 full of wool, I have card making stuff, I have buttons, ribbons, brooch pins etc.

I have 2 cardboard boxes full of fabric too which don’t really have a home.

My partner thinks I have a problem…I think we need a bigger house!

This is another catergory for me where I don’t have favourites. There are very few books that I have read more than once.

If pushed I supposde that the one author that I have read their books more than once and that I have searched out to read more of their writings is Joanne Harris.

I love the imagery that Joanne writes in her book Chocolat. I read the book around the time that it was made into a film and then for years I wouldn’t watch the film as I didn’t want it to be not as good as the book and spoil it for me. When I eventually watched the film, I was not disappointed luckily.

Joanne Harris is also the only author that I wanted to meet when I saw that she was having a book signing, so I guess that she is my favourite and I do have a favourite after all!